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Germany invades Poland
1.5 million German troops invade Poland with air strike bombings and ground forces. In this battle, Hitler's actions was intentional after believing that Chamberlain would not dare to stop him. Hitler was successful by using the 'Blitzkrieg' strategy. This war is believed to be the starting point of World War II -
Britain & France declare war on Germany
3 days after the invasion of Poland, Great Britain and France declare war, this ensures to happen after they were not convinced of Hitlers actions, the consequences from Hitler's actions causes both countries Britain and France to claim they're at war. -
Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Britain
Churchill replaces Neville Chamberlain as the British prime minister after Chamberlain resigns. In 1938 Chamberlain had signed the Munich Pact with Hitler, allowing the Nazis to control Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain believed that this agreement would bring peace, however the agreement doesn't go to plan causing problems from Britain .Churchill was elected on the 10th of May, 1940. Churchill was known for his military leadership. -
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Evacuation of Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo)
The Dunkirk evacuation, code-named Operation Dynamo, also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France, between 27 May and 4 June 1940, during World War II -
Italy enters war on side of Axis powers
On the 10th of June, 1940, Italy entered the war allied with the Axis powers. Italy and the rest of the Axis powers wanted the same things, they all wanted expansion of territory and the extermination of the Soviet Union. the axis powers gain success after dominating in areas such as Europe, Mediterranean Sea, and East Asia -
France signs armistice with Germany
On June 22nd, 1940, the French Government signed the armistice with Nazi Germany just six weeks after the Nazis launched their invasion of Western Europe. Marshall Petain appointed as the leader, broadcasts a message to the French people that "It is with a heavy heart that I tell you today that we must stop fighting." June 22nd the Armistice was singed. The Armistice was signed at the same spot the Germans signed one 20 years ago. -
Tripartite Part signed
Also known as the Berlin Pact, the Tripartite Pact was an agreement between Germany, Italy and Japan that formed the Axis powers. There were two agreements that the countries had to agree with before signed. One of them was that if a nation that was not already involved in the war, attack one of the countries involved in the Tripartite Pact, they would get assistance. -
Operation Sea Lion
Operation Sea Lion was a planned invasion on Great Britain in 1940 but the plan never went ahead as the Germans lost the war. -
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Siege of Tobruk
The Siege of Tobruk lasted for 241 days in 1941, against the British in Libya, during the Second World War. It was vital for the Allies' defence of Egypt and the Suez Canal to hold the town with its harbour, as this forced the enemy to bring most of their supplies overland from the port of Tripoli, across 1500 km of desert, as well as diverting troops from their advance. t Lord Haw Haw (William Joyce) called Australians rats, however the soldiers took that as a compliment. -
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany, and mostly took place in Russia. More than three million Axis troops and 3,500 tanks were involved, making this the largest military operation in history. Although Germans were initially successful, the operation failed in 1943 due to Germans having underestimated the Russians and the Russian winter -
Bombing Pearl Harbour
December 7th, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes, bombed the Naval Base near Honolulu, Hawaii. the Attack nealry lasted two hours with the Japanese fighter planes bombing nearly 20 American naval vessels, eight battleships and almost 200 airplanes. More than 2,000 American's died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. However the next day, the President, Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war against Japan -
Britain and US declare war on Japan
The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt completed a 10-minute speech, stating that the United States had declared war on Japan, ending with "so help us God". -
Japan take Singapore
Singapore had been a British colony since the 19th century and was a strategic stronghold. On the eve of the Pearl Harbor attack, 24,000 Japanese troops were transported to the Malay Peninsula, and Japanese fighter pilots attacked Singapore. A combination of speed and ferocious attacks left the British stunned. The war only ended with the use of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945, but the damage had been done, the British got humiliated. -
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Battle of Midway
Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States defeated Japan in one of the most decisive naval battles of World War II. Thanks in part to major advances in code breaking, the United States was able to preempt and counter Japan’s planned ambush of its few remaining aircraft carriers, inflicting permanent damage on the Japanese Navy. An important turning point in the -
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First Battle of El Alamein
In June, the British had succeeded in driving Rommel into a defensive position in Libya. But Rommel repelled repeated air and tank attacks, delivering heavy losses to the armored strength of the British, and finally, using his panzer divisions, managed to force a British retreat—a retreat so rapid that a huge quantity of supplies was left behind. In fact, Rommel managed to push the British into Egypt using mostly captured vehicles. -
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Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in Southern Russia, on the eastern boundary of Europe -
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Second Battle of El Alamein
The Second Battle of El Alamein was a major battle of the Second World War that took place near the Egyptian railway halt of El Alamein. Three hundred Sherman tanks that were hastily shipped to Egypt from the USA were a crucial influence on the outcome of this battle. The tanks gave Montgomery a significant advantage in firepower -
D-Day Landings
During World War II (1939-1945), the Battle of Normandy, which lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. Approximately 156,000 Allied troops had successfully stormed Normandy’s beaches.According to some estimates, more than 4,000 Allied troops lost their lives in the D-Day invasion, with thousands more wounded or missing. -
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Battle of the Bulge
In December 1944, Adolph Hitler attempted to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by means of a surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the Ardennes to Antwerp. As the Germans drove deeper into the Ardennes in an attempt to secure vital bridgeheads, the Allied line took on the appearance of a large bulge, giving rise to the battle’s name. Lieutenant General George S. Patton’s successful maneuvering of the Third Army to Bastogne proved vital to the Allied defense,. -
Mussolini captured and executed
The death of Benito Mussolini, the deposed Italian fascist dictator, occurred on 28 April 1945, in the final days of World War II in Europe, when he was summarily executed by Italian Communists in the small village of Giulino di Mezzegra in northern Italy. The "official" version of events is that Mussolini was shot by Walter Audisio, -
Hitler commits suicide
Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany, burrowed away in a refurbished air-raid shelter, consumes a cyanide capsule, then shoots himself with a pistol, on this day in 1945, The bodies of Hitler and Eva were cremated in the chancellery garden by the bunker survivors (as per Der Fuhrer’s orders) and reportedly later recovered in part by Russian troops. A German court finally officially declared Hitler dead, but not until 1956. -
German forces surrender
Nazi Germany surrendered on May 7th 1945 thus bringing World War Two in Europe to an end. On May 6th General Alfred Jodl arrived at General Dwight Eisenhower’s temporary headquarters – a small schoolhouse in Reims, France – to sign the surrender document. Four versions of the surrender document were required: in English, French, Russian and German. Before Jodl signed the surrender document, transcripts had been sent for approval to London, Paris and Moscow. As Hitler was dead. -
V.E. day
Victory in Europe Day, generally known as V-E Day, VE Day or simply V Day was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 (7 May in Commonwealth realms) to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. It marked the end of World War II in Europe. -
Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
The United States becomes the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Though the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan marked the end of World War II, many historians argue that it also ignited the Cold War -
Soviet Union declares war on Japan
On this day in 1945, the Soviet Union officially declares war on Japan, pouring more than 1 million Soviet soldiers into Japanese-occupied Manchuria, northeastern China, to take on the 700,000-strong Japanese army. -
Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
On this day in 1945, a second atom bomb is dropped on Japan by the United States, at Nagasaki, resulting finally in Japan’s unconditional surrender. The United States had already planned to drop their second atom bomb, nicknamed “Fat Man,” on August 11. However bad weather expected for that day pushed the date up to August 9th. -
Japanese surrender – End of WWII
Aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan formally surrenders to the Allies, bringing an end to World War II. By the summer of 1945, the defeat of Japan was a foregone conclusion. The Japanese navy and air force were destroyed. The Allied naval blockade of Japan and intensive bombing of Japanese cities had left the country and its economy devastated. -
United Nations is born
On this day in 1945, the United Nations Charter, which was adopted and signed on June 26, 1945, is now effective and ready to be enforced. was put in place to keep world peace, and to replace the old league of nations.